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Mission Images

Water Detected at High Latitudes
This image of the moon is from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 mission.
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How to Find Water on the Moon
These graphs show detailed measurements of light as a function of color or wavelength.
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Nearside of the Moon
These images from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft show data for the hemisphere of the moon that faces Earth.
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Craters and the Tell-Tale Signatures
Many small, fresh craters bear signatures of water and hydroxyl, which are detected as absorptions of infrared light in the range of 3 micrometers by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper.
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Mapping the Moon, Point by Point
The science objective of NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper on board the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is to map the composition of the moon and address scientific hypotheses with this information.
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Dispersing Light through the Moon Mineralogy Mapper
The Moon Mineralogy Mapper is a state-of-the-art NASA imaging spectrometer. Sunlight reflected off the moon enters the telescope and then is passed by mirrors to the spectrometer.
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Building the Moon Mineralogy Mapper
This image shows the Moon Mineralogy Mapper imaging spectrometer during development at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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Colorful Cubes of Light
On the left, a portion of the first image cube measured by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper on board the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on Nov. 19, 2008 shows the crater Harpalus north of Mare Imbrium.
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Mineral Mapping the Moon
This is an early mineral map derived from the different reflected light, or spectral, signatures, measured by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper on board the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
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Invisible Colors of the Moon - Video
Data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft reveal subtle and previously unknown lunar diversity and features.
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Cassini's Look at Water on the Moon
NASA's Cassini spacecraft observations of the moon on Aug. 19, 1999 show water and hydroxyl at all latitudes on the surface, even areas exposed to direct sunlight.
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Cassini and Chandrayaan-1 Agree
This graph compares detailed measurements of light from the moon, called spectra, taken by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on NASA' Cassini spacecraft and NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
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Water Around a Fresh Crater
These images show a very young lunar crater on the side of the moon that faces away from Earth, as viewed by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
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Rays of Water and Hydroxyl
These images show a lunar crater on the side of the moon that faces away from Earth, as viewed by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
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Deep Impact Identifies Water on the Lunar Surface
Since successfully carrying out its spectacular impact experiment at comet
Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft has been on an
extended mission, called Epoxi, which culminates in a flyby of comet Hartley 2
on November 4, 2010.
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Water Abundance Dependent on Temperature
This chart highlights observations from NASA's Deep Impact mission of the northern polar regions of the moon acquired on June 9, 2009.
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Water Abundances Change with Time of Day
Observations from NASA's Deep Impact mission of the moon's north pole from June 2 to 9, 2009 reveal changes in the amounts of water and hydroxyl.
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Daytime Water Cycle on the Moon
This schematic shows the daytime cycle of hydration, loss and rehydration
on the lunar surface.
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